Living Lakes Canada to attend 9th annual Canadian Water Summit

Living Lakes Canada to attend 9th annual Canadian Water Summit

The “Blue Economy” is an emerging concept encouraging better stewardship of water resources that will be the focus of the 9th annual Canadian Water Summit to be held in Vancouver June 20-22.

As part of its exploration of the theme “Knowledge to Practice—Applying Science, Policy, and Research to the Blue Economy”, this year’s three-day Summit will feature an eye-opening session on innovation in water governance across jurisdictional and cultural boundaries that will involve the Kootenay Lake Partnership and Ktunaxa First Nation with support from Living Lakes Canada.

“The Kootenay Lake Partnership recently developed precedent setting shoreline development guidelines for Kootenay Lake,” said Heather Leschied of Living Lakes Canada, who also serves as Chair of the Kootenay Lake Partnership. She went on to note, “this multi-agency partnership took an innovative approach to a Federal protocol for mapping and classifying sensitive shoreline habitats, by integrating ecological, archaeological and Ktunaxa Nation cultural values.”

At last year’s Canadian Water Summit in Toronto, Living Lakes Canada received two Water’s Next awards. Executive director Kat Hartwig won “Water Steward of the Year” and “People – NGO category”. LLC Photo

Presenting on behalf of the Ktuanxa Nation and Kootenay Lake Partnership will be Craig Paskin, the Manager of Policy and Planning with the Ktunaxa Nation Council’s Lands and Resource Agency, who will be highlighting the efforts of the Kootenay Lake Partnership to support collaborative management approaches for a productive and healthy Kootenay Lake ecosystem. Kootenay Lake is the first project of its kind aimed at protecting and restoring important fish and wildlife habitats, while ensuring archaeological values and Ktunaxa cultural values are considered and protected during the planning and permit application process.

Featured each year as part of the Summit is the Water’s Next national awards program, which honours the achievements and ideas of individuals and companies that successfully work to advance water stewardship in Canada. Last year at the 8th annual Canadian Water Summit held in Toronto, Living Lakes Canada executive director Kat Hartwig won two of the 12 Water’s Next awards — the “Water Steward of the Year” award and the “People – NGO category” — for the work the LLC team has done over the years, including a national scan in partnership with Simon Fraser University and the University of Acadia to assess the state of community-based water monitoring across Canada and build a national dialogue around best practices in CBWM.

The Summit attracts over 300 attendees from the business, government, academic, and non-profit sectors each June, making it Canada’s largest and most diverse annual gathering of water leaders.